Sermon: Nehemiah - Keeping First Things First

Note: Lloyd Stilley preached this sermon following Hurricane Ivan. It is part of a series he called "Keeping the Story Alive."

Introduction:

In the year 586 BC, something happened that we all can identify with—a city was utterly decimated! The city was Jerusalem. The destruction came not from a storm, but from the armies of Babylon. But the outcome was unimaginably painful. No Israelite had to wonder about conditions back in his hometown—every precious home, built by hand, was leveled. The great Temple was burned to the ground. The protective wall that surrounded the beloved city was reduced to rubble. So every citizen of Jerusalem experienced not only the total loss of property, but the death of family and friends at the hands of the Babylonian forces, and the deportation of those who survived.

Almost five decades would pass with that generation of Israelites serving as slaves. During this time, the Persian Empire rose to power and conquered Babylon. Now the Jews were slaves to the Persian Empire. But God was at work behind the scenes. 2 Chron. 36 tells us that in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, the word of the LORD spoken through Jeremiah was fulfilled. The LORD put it into the mind of King Cyrus of Persia to issue a proclamation throughout his entire kingdom and also [to put it] in writing: 23 This is what King Cyrus of Persia says: The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build Him a temple at Jerusalem in Judah. Whoever among you of His people may go up, and may the LORD his God be with him. (2 Chron. 36:22-23)

Over the next hundred years, three companies of people returned to Jerusalem with the dream that their beloved city would rise from the ashes. A politician lead the first group; a priest lead the second. But the leader of the last group was a layman whose name was Nehemiah. And the lessons his life and leadership during those hard and heavy times couldn’t be more appropriate for this moment. Keep the story alive this morning by learning how godly people respond in times of crisis and trial.

Bring your grief to God [1:1-4]

As Chap. 1 opens, Nehemiah does what we were doing a few days ago—asking long distance questions about how things back home are doing. His brother and some other men had returned from Judah—an 800 mile journey--and Nehemiah was eager to hear a status report. Verse 3 gives their reply: The survivors in the province, who returned from the exile, are in great trouble and disgrace. Jerusalem’s wall has been broken down, and its gates have been burned down.” Look at how Nehemiah responded to this news in v. 4: When I heard these words, I sat down and wept. I mourned for a number of days, fasting and praying before the God of heaven. Notice a couple of important responses that would do us all some good this morning:

He grieved his losses.

Nehemiah looked straight in the face of his heartaches. He didn’t put on a happy face; he didn’t pretend like nothing had happened; he didn’t try to keep a stiff upper lip. He sat down right there in front of some men and wept. His mourning continued for days, the Bible says. Friends, these are hard, suffering times right now. Stop long enough to weep. Take off the work gloves long enough to mourn. But notice a second response:

He took his griefs to God in prayer. Nehemiah didn’t try to handle the weight alone. He didn’t pretend that he was God. He prayed. He even replaced eating with prayer. The rest of Chapter 1 records the earnest prayer of Nehemiah, who took his burdens to the Lord and found the grace of God to be sufficient. What does the old hymn ask us? “O what peace we often forfeit; O what needless pain we bear—all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” He’s waiting to hear from you. Would you pause right now and ask Him to be your Helper. (Close in prayer) Here’s another lesson we learn from Nehemiah.

Forge your plans for God [2:11-18; 3:1-32; 4:6]

You have one of two choices when calamity comes—you can throw in the towel or roll up your sleeves and rebuild! Nehemiah choose the later. Chapter 2:1ff. tell us that when he arrived in Jerusalem, he did a midnight tour of the city. He thoroughly surveyed the conditions, assembling the necessary information to formulate a plan. Verses 17-18 tell us that the next day he assembled the leaders and cast his vision for rebuilding the walls. And the vision caught on. Verse 18 records Nehemiah’s personal journal: I told them how the gracious hand of my God had been on me, and what the king had said to me. They said, “Let’s start rebuilding,” and they were encouraged to [do] this good work.

Chapter 3 details the plan of action formulated by Nehemiah. Work teams were assigned to ten different gates, each tackling their part of the whole project. In Chapter 4:6, Nehemiah captures the camaraderie and determination of the people of God with these words: So we rebuilt the wall until the entire wall was joined together up to half its [height] , for the people had the will to keep working. Was it difficult? There were times of great discouragement and even strong opposition! Did everybody really get in on the act? No, just like in every time period, there were workers and there were shirkers. But the bottom line is, they kept their eye on the goal—restoring what had been ruined for the glory of God!

Hear me brothers and sisters! The rubble around us in our day is no less discouraging, and finding ways to help is sometimes difficult and always exhausting. We are seeking this morning to organize our efforts, to form teams with the will to keep working for the glory of God and the good of people. You have already heard the call this morning. Join a team today! You may not be able to wield a chain saw, but you can pray or do washing or help with children or do assessing. Find a place, and let’s form a mighty force for Christ in Gulf Shores and beyond! Together with God, we can accomplish much in the days ahead!

Start again with God [Chap. 8-10].

I heard about this man who bought a beautiful parrot. He admired its beauty and the novelty of having it—just one problem: that bird used foul language! The man’s parrot could swear for five minutes straight without repeating itself. What added to the difficulty was the embarrassment the man experienced when his dirty bird would cuss a blue streak in front of people!

The man tried everything! Behavior modification was first, rewarding the parrot for good speech and punishing the bird for the off-color stuff. It would work temporarily, but then his swearing would return with increased volume and frequency. One time, he blew his stack, grabbed the parrot and shook it hard, yelling, “Cut that out!” But this only made the parrot angry and he swore more than ever.

Well, that did it! The man tossed his beautiful parrot into the freezer. For the first few seconds the bird squawked and screamed and thrashed around, and then there was silence. A couple more minutes past without a sound and the man started envisioning his frozen parrot.

Uncertain what to expect, the man opened the freezer door, at which time the bird calmly climbed onto the man’s outstretched arm and said, “I’m really sorry about all the trouble I’ve been giving you. I make a solemn promise to clean up my language from now on.” The man was astounded. What could have accounted for this sudden transformation? The parrot cleared it up for him when he said, “I just have one question: What did that chicken in there do?”

Listen very carefully to me—for the people of God in Nehemiah’s day, the hard times, the painful losses, and deep hurts were a spiritual wake up call. They didn’t chalk up their experiences to bad luck; they examined themselves before the Lord. God had thrown them in the freezer and it shook them up. They realized that their harsh trials were in fact a severe mercy from God to call them to clean hearts and renewed commitments.

Chapter 10 tells us that they made four solemn promises. The opening verses record the names of the leaders who personally signed this pledge to do these four commitments. Thousands of others followed their lead verbally. As we contemplate the mercy of God to us all after our storm, will you pledge as well?

Promise #1: Submission to God’s Word

Chapter 10:28b-29: Everyone who is able to understand and who has separated themselves from the surrounding peoples to [obey] the law of God— 29 join with their noble brothers and commit themselves with a sworn oath to follow the law of God given through God’s servant Moses and to carefully obey all the commands, ordinances, and statutes of the LORD our Lord.

Do you see how serious this was? They entered into a sworn oath to follow the law of God. This was a vow, a solemn promise before God. They were totally serious in their desire to devote themselves to everything that is spelled out in what they had of the Bible at that time.

William Booth, the founder of the Salvation Army was once asked what his secret was to his incredible ministry. This is what he said, “God has had all that there was of me. There have been men with greater brains than I…but from the day I got the poor of London on my heart and caught a vision of what Jesus Christ could do with me and them, on that day I made up my mind that God should have all of William Booth that there was.”

In Neh. 10, the people are saying that they are so seriously submitted to God and His Word that they are willing for the curses of God to fall on them if they do not obey what He says. Now, we are free as Christians from any condemnation from God, but I wonder if we have that same submission and dangerous devotion they had?

Promise #2: Separation From the World

Verse 30: We will not give our daughters in marriage to the surrounding peoples and will not take their daughters as wives for our sons. The underlying principle here is that God wants His people to be profoundly different, uncompromised in their values and undivided in their loyalties. This has a direct application to our homes, which Paul makes clear when he commands believers, Do not be mismatched with unbelievers. For what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness? Or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15 What agreement does Christ have with Belial? Or what does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? 16 And what agreement does God’s sanctuary have with idols? For we are the sanctuary of the living God (2 Cor. 6:14,16).

But the broader application is sorely needed today—living a life of such radical difference from what the world pursues that you stand out. Almost a hundred years ago, a preacher named J. Wilbur Chapman was known to often say in his messages, "It's not the ship in the water but the water in the ship that sinks it. It's not the Christian in the world but the world in the Christian that constitutes the danger." Can anyone tell you are a Christian? Has there been a Holy Spirit-wrought change in your life that touches your speech, your habits, your choices, your values? Oh that there would be after this day! After pledging themselves to submit to the Word of God and to live separated lives, God’s people made a third promise:

Promise #3: Sabbathing for God’s People

Verse 31: When the surrounding peoples bring merchandise or any kind of grain to sell on the Sabbath day, we will not buy from them on the Sabbath or a holy day. We will also leave [the land] uncultivated in the seventh year and will cancel every debt.

The word Sabbath means "to cease, to stop working, to celebrate, to be finished." God instituted Sabbath as a day of the week to set a godly rhythm into the calendar. In the NT, this is expanded beyond just the observation of a day. Sabbathing is a choice that can be pressed upon any day of the week, a choice to rest in God.

Jesus told us that the Sabbath was made for man (Mk. 2:27). It is a gift that is so important God demands you receive it. What makes it so valuable? Sabbathing recalibrates the soul and recuperates the body. It tunes your life to the greatness and goodness and nearness of God and His right to call the shots and carry your burdens.

It is so easy right now when there are so many things left undone to work right through Sabbath times, to drive yourself to produce, produce, produce. Paul has a warning for you: So we must not get tired of doing good, for we will reap at the proper time if we don’t give up. (Gal. 6:9). God wants to nourish your wounded soul. Will you pledge to call frequent time-outs for Him?

Promise #4: Support For God’s Work

In vs. 32-39, the phrase house of our God is used nine times. It refers to the Temple, which had been rebuilt. And what they pledge themselves to do is support the work of the Lord in that place of worship.

Verse 32-33: We will impose [the following] commandments on ourselves: To give an eighth of an ounce of silver yearly for the service of the house of our God: 33 the bread displayed before the LORD, the daily grain offering, the regular burnt offering, the Sabbath and New Moon offerings, the appointed festivals, the holy things, the sin offerings to atone for Israel, and for all the work of the house of our God. They pledged to do all the offerings, to bring their firstfruits—the best of their harvest—to bring their tithes to the house of the Lord.

Verse 39 sums up their commitment: “We will not neglect the house of our God.” You need to know that at this time, they had not yet built their own homes. But they nevertheless trusted God’s provision and stated their commitment to give to God’s work systematically and sacrificially.

Conclusion:

4 promises: Submission to God’s Word, Separation from the world, sabbathing for God’s people, and support for God’s work. Some of us need to grieve this morning, and take our burdens to the Lord. All of us can enter into the plan that is being presented this morning. This is the time to return to the Lord, to enter into the promises that make God’s people a light in this world, useful to God for His glory. What’s it going to take to get your attention?

Pastor Lloyd Stilley has been married to Leeanne for 23 years, has two sons, Joey (20) and Craig (16), and has served as a pastor for 20 years. The past 7 years he has served FBC, Gulf Shores. He is a graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.